There is nothing more dismaying to football fans that a referees call that goes against their team and changes the course of game. The cry goes out: “Hey, ref let’em play.”

The battle over energy policy these days has devolved to the same cry of “let’em play” as energy subsidies and tax breaks have become targets for all sides.

Republican lawmakers have lambasted the Obama Administration over guarantees for solar panel companies, such as the now bankrupt Solyndra. Environmental groups have drawn aim on the 1995 royalty waiver program designed to encourage development of expensive, deep water wells in the Gulf of Mexico. BP’s Deepwater Horizon, cause of the worst offshore oil spill in history, received those waivers.

The feeling expressed by some is that energy sources and technologies ought to compete mano a mano in the open and free market and let the solar chips fall where they may. In opposing a bill pending in Congress – HR 1380 which aims to use tax breaks to promote natural gas as a transportation fuel – the Heritage Foundation argues: “Tax incentives like these allow government to decide which energy sources thrive or fail—and thereby distort the market.”

But two recent analyses of energy markets, including one entitled “What Would Jefferson Do?,” show, they are pretty much distorted all around and it raised the question for me of what would Adam Smith, the 18th century Scottish economist and prophet of the free market with its “invisible hand,” make of the situation and what advice he might offer.

The federal Bureau of Land Management is offering six parcels covering nearly 5,000 acres for oil and gas development at its next lease sale, Feb. 9, 2012, the agency announced today.

Three of the parcels are in Routt County and three are in Moffat County. The BLM is also offering two geothermal parcels located within the Gunnison Field Office, in Gunnison County. The first geothermal parcel includes 4,588 acres of BLM land. The second geothermal parcel includes about 3,765 acres of U.S. Forest Service land.

The geothermal parcels are being put up for auction after stipulations were added to the lease offers, including protective measures for geological hazards, Gunnison sage-grouse seasonal mating areas, and senior water rights.

The deadline for submitting protests is 4 p.m., Dec. 12. All protests must be received by the BLM Colorado State Office, located at 2850 Youngfield St., Lakewood, CO 80215.

Drillers in Colorado would have to file a detailed report on the amount fluid and its ingredients used to hydrofracture wells under draft state regulations issued today.

Colorado, like Texas and Wyoming, is proposing that drillers disclose the constituents of their fracking fluids through FracFocus.Org – an independent national database.

“The reason for adopting the new rules and amendments was to address concerns regarding hydraulic fracturing. Members of the public have expressed interest in learning the identity of chemicals in hydraulic fracturing fluids,” the commission said.

Almost all wells in Colorado, and most in the nation, are fracked, with water, sand and trace chemicals pumped under pressure into the hole to fracture the rock and release more oil and gas.

The fluids for about half the wells fracked this year in Colorado have been voluntarily filed with FracFocus, according the Colorado oil and gas commission.Read more…

An independent audit of Colorado’s oil and gas regulations on hydrofracturing – a technique used in drilling almost all wells in the state – identified four areas where the rules should be tightened.

The audit by State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations, Inc or STRONGER – which is composed of environmental groups and state oil and gas regulators – found the Colorado programs “well managed and professional” and meeting the group’s hydrofracturing guidelines.

The audit, which had been requested by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, did identify four areas the state could improve its oversight:

• Set a minimum amount of surface casing for a well to protect ground water. Colorado does not have a requirement. STRONGER recommended a review by the oil and gas commission of wells of wells to determine a state standard.
• Include details of frack fluids – materials used, aggregate volumes and fracture pressures – as part of the well completion form a driller files with the state.
• Evaluate the chance of facking fluids falling under the disposal requirements for “naturally occurring radioactive waste.”
• Evaluate available sources of water for use in hydraulic fracturing. “Given the significant water supply issues in this arid region, this project should also include an evaluation of whether or not availability of water for hydraulic fracturing is an issue,” the audit said.

Fracking forces millions of gallons of water and sand with trace chemicals into a well under pressure to fracture the rock and release more oil and gas. Concerns have been rasied by opponents over the effect of the process on ground water and the risks of dispossing of the frack fluids.

Colorado is getting ready to adopt a frack fluid disclosure rule, a hearing set Dec. 5.

“It as a positive step and the recommendations should go right to the top of the “to do list,”’ said Mike Chiropolos, an attorney with Western Resource Advocates, a Boulder-based environmental policy group.

“The most significant piece of the STRONGER report, however, is what isn’t in there, such as the need to increase residential setback requirements,” Chiropolos said.

The current minimum levels – 150 feet for rural areas; 350 feet for urban areas – are not sufficiently protective in the more developed areas of the Front Range, Chiropolos said.

David joined The Denver Post in 1999, his second go-round in the Mile High City. Since then he’s covered a variety of topics – from human services to consumer affairs – most always with an investigative bent. Currently he does investigations and banking.